Among the many challenges that restaurants face are the challenges of reducing excess capacity during off-peak times and the general lack of customer level information. Restaurants typically have a fixed number of seats. During certain periods there is greater demand for those seats than others. At some times there are people waiting to get seated (for example, on weekend evenings during dinnertime) and at other times there are unused seats (for example, 4-7 p.m. during the week). Typically unused seats translate to lost sales for a restaurant.
Many restaurants do not have detailed information about their customers. This lack of information is a lost opportunity. Typically, restaurants advertise through mass market media (TV, radio, newspapers, etc.). However, this is not the most efficient way to advertise.
These and other drawbacks and challenges face the restaurant industry. Similar problems are faced by other industries that have excess capacity issues.